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Ron Dunn
25th October 2007, 10:44 PM
My 3yo daughter saw a dolls house at Big-W today, and was greatly taken by it. Frankly, I thought it was rubbish - paper and plastic - but at least I got the idea to make one for Christmas.

I'm looking for ideas on what makes a good dolls house from a little girl's perspective. If you had a dolls house, I'd be delighted to hear what you loved about it so I can take those ideas into account in my design.

manoftalent
25th October 2007, 11:28 PM
a dolls house is somewhere a child can play "mommy"...so it should reflect that in its features ...most layouts are two storey.....upstairs bedrooms and on-suites ...a wardrobe or two ....tiny beds with bed heads ....furniture makes a home , the lack of it ...makes a box ...and attention to detail ..mouldings for skirting , ...carpet, tiles ..etc .make a difference, I saw one auctioned for charity ...it raised over $1800 ....and the attention to detail was brilliant ....and often the most memorable

RufflyRustic
26th October 2007, 10:57 AM
A nice paint job goes a long way. I mean a couple of different colours, eg white on ceiling, another colour on the walls.

Use of Carpet and Lino in some areas would be nice. The windows don't have to open and doors aren't totally necessary, from what I remember:)

A roof that lifts off can be very helpful. Even a split dollshouse with hinges so that there are two halves.

cheers
Wendy

flynnsart
26th October 2007, 11:03 AM
A family of dolls that FIT the furniture and house. And of course a little dog.:D

Donna

Pusser
26th October 2007, 01:08 PM
I made one for my daughter who was teaching kindergarten. The front opened like double doors and the roof hinged at the ridge line using a piano hinge. Basically a two story house, cut out doors and windows, and painted each room with bright spray paint. Put mock flooreboards and carpet down. Bought furniture for it though. The whole thing was made of thin MDF. The kids loved it.

Pusser

arose62
26th October 2007, 02:34 PM
If it's going to be played with, not too much detail - simpler = more scope for imagination!

See our project here:

http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=19526

Cheers,
Andrew

celeste
26th October 2007, 06:49 PM
Hi Ron

My 6yr old daughter and I are making one over Xmas. It is a barbie beach house I can post a picture if you like and email you the plans. I have a couple of others as well, fancier ones like in the 19 hundreds.

Let me know if you would like me to post some pictures.:2tsup:

Celeste

astrid
27th October 2007, 01:04 AM
My other half and I made a doll house for her 3rd birthday, we bought a basis kit, opening front, 2 story, hinged pitch roof,in good qual mdf
then we modified it to look like our house ( vic workers cottage)

we traveled over seas a lot at the time and the house came too
we furnished the inside with carpets (place mats) and wall papered it( got an old sample book and cut it tofit.
shes 14 now, but my 10 yo son loves it ,as do his friends. Not to play mommies in but to house the dinosaurs, lego monsters and anything else.
its an imagination toy the link being that its a mimi "our house"
unless your daughter is a girl girl,
dont paint it pink!!

astrid

Ron Dunn
27th October 2007, 09:54 AM
Some great advice/guidance here ... thank you very much.

Astrid, my daughter is a man-eating princess :( I asked her what she wanted for her third birthday present, and she replied - in a most definite and final voice - "Diamonds".

So unlike her mother ...

SAISAY
29th November 2007, 04:11 PM
When I was a little girl, too many years ago to want to remember, I had a dolls house that REALLY got played with.
It was a rectangular, single story house. The front was hinged and, when it folded down, it was painted like a garden where I could put my mini plants and trees. I had some lovely garden furniture to put there and spent hours pretending I was Mummy having visitors etc.
Little Wolff

Wongo
29th November 2007, 04:37 PM
Here is one I prepared earlier.

http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/attachment.php?attachmentid=4024&d=1095651066

RufflyRustic
29th November 2007, 04:56 PM
I like the timber flooring in the living room. Is that Redgum? :p:D

robyn2839
29th November 2007, 06:45 PM
i made this one for my daughter, a few years ago ,an easy thing to make.and so much pleasure had , bob

les88
30th November 2007, 07:23 AM
robyn 2839 that is very elegant a couple of questions please .
how did you do the tiles?
make the sashes?
and on the top door sash bars?
thanks
les

robyn2839
30th November 2007, 08:38 AM
the tiles were simply 25 ml wide strips of mdf, tape about 20 together then run through table saw at 15 ml intervals halfway through,i bought the windows online ,there are many places that sell them,ie hobby stores.bob

les88
30th November 2007, 04:52 PM
thanks for the info, I will get stuck into the job
les

robyn2839
30th November 2007, 05:46 PM
looking forward to seeing pics. bob

astrid
2nd December 2007, 10:39 AM
some tips for the finishing.
one mistake we made was to paint the MDF before we glued the purchased sash windows and shutters.
these are always falling off:no:
for the wall paper inside i got an old obsolete wallpaper pattern book,
could use it for borders and mix and match.

for lino in the bathoom and kitchen used vynal dinner mats and heavy fablic ones for carpets and rugs and old pressed pictur frames for decorative architraves and skirting boards.

Astrid

robyn2839
2nd December 2007, 05:31 PM
tou can buy scale wall paper ,carpets ,skirting , cornice,bull nose corragated iron for verandas , lighting kits ,fireplaces ,anything you can buy for your own house you can buy for a dolls house , i have even bought brooms ,newspapers,bottles dishes . bob

HappyHammer
17th December 2007, 09:58 AM
Let me know if you would like me to post some pictures.:2tsup:

Celeste
Yes please Celeste.

HH.

Pusser
17th December 2007, 10:26 AM
If you are doing a lot you can get a dolls house router bit set that works with a dremel or one of the clones - You can replicate skirtings and most grown up woodwork with them. They are not expensive as the bits are just HSS and quite small. However, you do need a router table for the tool - you can make your own or buy a dremel one which is about $100 I think.

Ramps
17th December 2007, 09:51 PM
OK so I didn't have a dolls house when I was younger but I did have 3 sisters and no bros if you know what I mean ... and I do have 2 daughters (and no sons)

One w/e many years ago my lovely wife (that's the correct term in this forum isn't it?) decided that my daughters would appreciate a dolls house. Well I thought they'd appreciate helping me ... so they did ... at about the ages of about 6 and 3. Sanding, painting etc. Well it didn't quite turn out the way I had planned given the help but it has been and is still well loved and played with every week (was every day for years). This was created from recycled Nokia phone crates (cost about $6 for the wood) and about $4 for new hinges ... all paint and varnish was from "stock".

Had to fit a Barbie standing up and lying down and be two storeys ... that was the only requirements.

I think the only rule is ... Make it practical

Looks are good and if you can do both good on you but always the above rule first.

Oh and if they can be involved in the design and construction process it's even better

I made the doors bi-fold so as it wouldn't take up too much room with the doors open ... they work a treat.

and a couple of pics

powderpost
19th December 2007, 11:01 PM
Built this one earlier this year. Measures approximately 750mm square and about 700mm high. Has timber veneer floor upstairs and a split slate floor downstairs, a stair case with turned balusters and a removable roof. The roof is covered with 5600 hand split shingles. Two wall panels are removable for 'play'. Windows were hand made and fitted with 1.5mm perspex sheet. Took about 100 hours to build.
Jim

HappyHammer
19th December 2007, 11:16 PM
Hey Jim how much does a dolls house like that sell for if you don't mind me asking? It's fantastic by the way.:2tsup:

HH.

powderpost
19th December 2007, 11:31 PM
HH, It sold for $2500.
Jim

burraboy
23rd December 2007, 06:48 AM
We used to live in an old two storey pub, 1860's vintage. When I made a doll's house for my kids, I made the facade as a 12:1 repro of the pub and then foreshortened the side dimensions to make the inside access easy. If your house is suitable you might think about doing similar.

Moo73
7th February 2008, 02:08 PM
The only thing I've noticed all these dolls houses - which look great, by the way - are missing is a shed! :U
Where on earth do Barbie, Skipper and Ken keep the tools??
:wink:

HandyAndrea
16th July 2008, 09:20 PM
A little girl needs a doll house she can actually PLAY in/with, with sturdy fittings and furnishings, and dolls that are to scale.
Those beautiful minature homes are best saved for more grown-up girls and women. You would be constantly monitoring her play with the latter to make sure she didn't break anything, and I'm sure that would reduce her pleasure in the doll-house. I'm a grannny, and I still drool over miniature houses, so there's plenty of time to make her one of those! Just my two cents worth.

mega
16th January 2009, 09:11 PM
My 3yo daughter saw a dolls house at Big-W today, and was greatly taken by it. Frankly, I thought it was rubbish - paper and plastic - but at least I got the idea to make one for Christmas.

I'm looking for ideas on what makes a good dolls house from a little girl's perspective. If you had a dolls house, I'd be delighted to hear what you loved about it so I can take those ideas into account in my design.
If you want ideas on how t omake a dolls house go to the blog I started recently called http://dollshousedolls.blogspot.com A local carpenter built the dolls house "Wilshire Manor" from a pattern I had kept since 1986. I had owned this dollshouse, but had sold it in my antique shop. I made an e book of the pattern which you can buy for 5.00 and the profits go to a charity for the blind. REMEMBER, windows must go up and down, doors must open, and a stairway is esential if it is 2 storey.
This reminded me of the dolls house my father had made for me, and the hours of pleasure and the fun of creating everything for the house.
I also had another 2 dolls houses in the garage and a dolls house horse stable, plus unopened boxes of dollshouse "stuff" since I had moved 6 years ago. I even had the dolls I had made in the image of each of my children, and the horse, and furniture...all to 1/12 scale.
These have been re positioned and photographed / videod and storylines written for "Stories from a Dolls house" which I hope to publish one day.
I had been very ill and I have to say, that the "playing with my dollshouses" has been very rewarding. I especially enjoyed making a chookhouse and gardens, plus a duck pond with a little tortoise, dusks and geese etc.(using paper mache and DAS- air dryed clay)
While a dolls house cannot cure an illness, it certainly can be absorbing and creative.
as well as that, it takes one mind off pain etc.
Mega